All posts by The Plaid Mentat

Five Years

I got a certificate at work the other day, congratulating me for five years of service at the NSIDC.  Five years seems so short when I look back like this though.  I’m not quite sure why – it’s possible that it’s because I’ve been at the NSIDC off-and-on since 2005 (before I started as a full-time professional, I was a student).  It could be that the last five years have been far more stable than the preceding 10, which were defined by transience, short-term goals, and significant changes.  Finally, it could just be that I’ve only been with the organization for five years, which is a very short time compared to some of the other folks in the center – we just celebrated our 40th anniversary at the NSIDC, and there were people in attendance that have been with the center since the beginning. Continue reading Five Years

Kingdom Death: Dragon King

When I was thinking about the posts that I might make over the course of 2016, I didn’t really plan on this blog becoming a Kingdom Death: Monster blog.  But, I’ve got one more (for now) set of monster pictures to post.  This is the last of the monsters that we’re fighting for the shop settlement, and, since it was the Dragon King, I wanted to go ahead and put together the other models that came on the main sprue – the Dragon King in human form and the Dragon People (for the Dragon King campaign).

As usual, pictures after the jump. Continue reading Kingdom Death: Dragon King

Production Software Support

At work, I’ve been involved in a new effort to overhaul how we handle the development support of our production software.  As the Ops lead, that is something I am very passionate about, so I am excited to be involved in this effort.  I have to admit that I’m somewhat of an idealist when it comes to projects at work, but I have this vision that production software live in production… Continue reading Production Software Support

The Three-Body Problem

I recently finished reading The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu.  While I mostly live under a rock when it comes to (social) media, this one popped up on my radar in a number of different places, and, when a co-worker loaned me his copy, I decided I would give it a shot.  As a science-fiction novel containing aliens, strange cultures, and possible invasion plans, it’s pretty much in my wheelhouse, and curtails nicely with the game that I’m currently running. Continue reading The Three-Body Problem